A cure for Britain’s broken society

The benefits system is creating problems, not solving them. A powerful new report suggests ways out of the welfare morass

In the late 19th century, Charles Booth, born into a privileged family in Liverpool before making his money in shipping, did more to expose poverty in Britain, and in particular in London, than anybody else.

Booth's study, Life and Labour of the People in London, was published in 17 volumes, the last of which appeared in 1903. It shocked Victorian England, revealing that in the East End of London 35% of people lived in abject poverty.

Booth set the standard for subsequent social research, and helped prompt reforms including the early welfare state, notably Lloyd George's means-tested pension of 1908. Tramping the streets of London and producing his mammoth study was hard work. "I cursed every minute I gave to it," he said later.

Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, is in many ways as unlikely a social reformer as Booth. Humiliatingly deposed from the job in 2003 when